AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Ars Technica, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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Researchers at Monash University challenged the long-held belief that psychedelics cause random chaos in the brain. Devon Stoliker, a neuroscientist leading the study, noted that while traditional views described brain networks loosening and talking to each other noisily, this did not explain why users report meaningful insights or clarity. To test this, his team conducted the PsiConnect study with 62 volunteers who had never taken psychedelics before. Participants received 19 milligrams of psilocybin and underwent brain scanning in four specific settings: lying at rest, guided meditation, listening to curated music, and watching a video of moving clouds.

The team avoided standard cognitive tasks to ensure the scans captured an authentic, uninterrupted experience, as introducing tasks can interrupt the psychedelic state. Analysis using artificial intelligence revealed that while connections within individual brain networks weakened, connections between different networks strengthened. This reduced the brain’s modularity, meaning neurons were less sorted into specialist teams. Additionally, the difference in brain activity between being eyes-open and eyes-closed shrank by 85 percent under psilocybin, suggesting a blurred boundary between internal thoughts and external sensory input.

To find order within the data, the researchers used a machine-learning tool called CEBRA to track moment-by-moment activity across 332 brain regions for each person individually. Instead of averaging data over time or pooling it across people, they created unique trajectories for every participant. The results showed that under psychedelics, brain activity became organized and clearly differentiated by context. The default mode network, associated with the sense of self, and the visual network each contributed over 20 percent to this effect. This explains the subjective feeling that the internal world and external world become less separate, a state Stoliker calls "embeddedness." Most participants reported positive psychological changes like peace and creativity the day after their session.